Xolo Pass

Xolos one step away from the Copa Libertadores tournament

They must win saturday's game

Estadio Caliente could witness a great achievement this Saturday. Photo Pedro Neri / San Diego Red

by Manuel R. Medina

November 1 2012

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TIJUANA, BC. – Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente will playing probably their most important game of the season this Saturday against San Luis, which if they are able to come up with a win along with other contributing factors, it maybe be possible for them to secure their pass to the Copa Libertadores of America 2013.

Only four teams could possible stop the Xolos from qualifying to the biggest soccer tournament in Latin America, and those teams are Toluca, Leon, Club America and Cruz Azul.

According to the rules of competition of the Apertura tournament 2012 of the Liga Mx, the first 2 teams who are at the top of the general leader boards will be able to qualify directly to the Cup, and the team who stands in the third position will have to earn their pass by playing other teams from Latin American countries in a small wild card playoff matches.

The Mexican soccer league teams who definitely cannot qualify for the Copa Libertadores are Tigres of Nuevo Leon, Santos, Monterrey and Chivas of Guadalajara because they are currently participating in the Champions league of the Concacaf 2012-2013.

Currently Tijuana has 30 points total, and both Leon and America have 27 points each and are in 3rd and 4th place while Cruz Azul has 25 points.

There are a lot of factors that can either help Xolos qualify or not to the big tournament, and there are too many to list, but there are a few clear combinations that we can list which are:

The clearest result that can help Xolos obtain their pass is if they can win on Saturday, which will bring them up to 33 points, and if Club America loses this weekend and with one game left to play after, they would only add up a total of 30 points which still leaves Xolos ahead on the board and qualifying to tournament.

If Xolos win and Club America ties in their game, Tijuana will still add up to 33 points and America will be at 28 points with the possibility of only having a total of 31 points if they win their last game.

On the other hand if things are the other way around, where if America wins against Pachuca this Saturday and the Xolos lose, but America will still not the advantage over Xolos to qualify, but that will all depend also on what the result of the game between Toluca and Leon will be, which Leon will still have a chance to qualify also if they can win their last game which is against Chivas of Guadalajara.

In case Tijuana ties and Club America loses, then by mathematical calculations the decision would have to wait until the result of each team of their last game of the season, which will decide definitely who will be qualifying to Copa Libertadores.

On Saturday by the time game time comes around for Xolos, they will already know the result of the game of Club America vs. Pachuca, which then depending of that result they will also know if they are qualified or not for Copa Libertardores of America 2013.